European Politico-economics QA Mega-thread - Page 1244

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Honestly i am not sure what this map is suppose to depict. Germany seems to be split in the cold war era style. But there is also something strange going on with Poland (i am not sure what excatly - that seems to be pre WWII polish west border and post WWII polish west border at the same time on the map). . Bohemia seems to be borderless to the east and Vienna is a free city? There is also Part of Northern Italy taken and Part of Northern Switzerland.

It is supposed to show the lands that the German people have a claim to. It shows various "German states" and "German lands" that have existed or do exist but should truely be united. Also Bohemia/the East being so open and the colored in similar fashion to everything German is quite an obvious statement.

Like i said its more weird than damning. Is he advocating that Germany be split in half, soviet troops stationed in Berlin, Branderburg and Pommerania being brought back? Vienna becoming a free city. Those borders are strangeeeee.

Looks like a representation of "Großdeutschland", par for the when it comes to far right artists. I'll truly never understand this weird pan-German attitude that some people in Austria still have. It's not even nationalism because you're essentially advocating to give up control of your own country.

According to German media and a published video by the German "Süddeutsche Zeitung":Austrian vice-chancellor, head of the nationalist FPÖ party and Johann Gudenus, head of the Viennese FPÖ, have been filmed in 2017 (shortly before the last elections) having a 6 hour meeting with a Russian oligarch. They were promising a sell-out of state contracts to her and selling out the state media ORF to her in exchange for forbidden party financing and a take-over of the largest boulevard paper "Krone" through her which should then push the FPÖ. Journalists have been called "the biggest whores of the planet" by Strache in that meeting and much more. It is pointed out by the oligarch multiple times that the money is black money.Also it is said that there were lines of coke on the table. (rumors of Strache taking coke have been around for years)Thing is, the Russian oligarch was a trap.

This thing is blowing up hugely at the moment in the media. The government and the parties have hardly commented it so far, but all of the government seems to be in office at this hour (22:18) in Austria. This is serious.

Personal expectation (unless something turns out to be completely different): The conservative ÖVP will end the coalition with the FPÖ and call for new elections and win them by a landslide. The FPÖ will lose the EU election and the national re-election big time.

Edit: Chancellor Kurz has commented "he knows what to do now" and will make a statement tomorrow.

On May 18 2019 05:16 Big J wrote:According to German media and a published video by the German "Süddeutsche Zeitung":Austrian vice-chancellor, head of the nationalist FPÖ party and Johann Gudenus, head of the Viennese FPÖ, have been filmed in 2017 (shortly before the last elections) having a 6 hour meeting with a Russian oligarch. They were promising a sell-out of state contracts to her and selling out the state media ORF to her in exchange for forbidden party financing and a take-over of the largest boulevard paper "Krone" through her which should then push the FPÖ. Journalists have been called "the biggest whores of the planet" by Strache in that meeting and much more. It is pointed out by the oligarch multiple times that the money is black money.Also it is said that there were lines of coke on the table. (rumors of Strache taking coke have been around for years)Thing is, the Russian oligarch was a trap.

This thing is blowing up hugely at the moment in the media. The government and the parties have hardly commented it so far, but all of the government seems to be in office at this hour (22:18) in Austria. This is serious.

Personal expectation (unless something turns out to be completely different): The conservative ÖVP will end the coalition with the FPÖ and call for new elections and win them by a landslide. The FPÖ will lose the EU election and the national re-election big time.

Edit: Chancellor Kurz has commented "he knows what to do now" and will make a statement tomorrow.

Hahaha, just read that in the French press... The far-right scum never fails to deliver...

Keep us informed on the next developments if you can, this should be fun...

Strache will have to go, there is no way around this.As I see it there are three options then:a) Norbert Hofer or Herbert Kickl take over the FPÖ vice chancellorship and Kurz declares it is Strache's personal problemb) Option a), but the FPÖ has to make incredible concessions to stay in powerc) Kurz simply disbands the coalition tomorrow.

Since I personally believe that the timing of the leak, possibly even the set up of Strache itself, is the conservatives' doing, my guess is with c). Kurz now holds all the cards. He has a government that is quite popular. He has pushed through work time reforms and surveillance programs that would not have been possible with the social-democrats (his only alternative). He is not interested in selling out the state media ORF or direct democracy - things that have been on the agenda for the end of the legislative period.

And most of all, he is going to win a re-election big time. The FPÖ will be in shambles, their voters demobilized or vote for Kurz who is already leading all the polls by a big margin, possibly then taking over 40%. He can pretty much set up a coalition of his liking, going into negotiations with either the social-democrats, the neoliberals+the greens (or possibly only one of them depending on the numbers) or another government with a much weaker FPÖ.

So I believe disbanding the coalition is the smart move from the outside and Kurz is a smart player. But the inside look is always different. We'll see.

I think the efforts by the Kremlin to build a fascist international in the west of loyal and compromised far right parties is the single biggest geopolitical threat we face at the moment. It’s also ironic that all those so called « patriots » ultranationalists are pawns of a foreign power actively trying to destroy us.

About the austrian far right, considering how little influence the knowledge that the front national sold its support to crimean annexation to Russia has had, and the way the public has reacted to Trump and his team trying to conspire with the russians, I wouldn’t be too quick to burry them.

Beware of the dreams of others, because if you are caught in their dream, you are screwed. Dreams are terrifying will to power. ~Gilles Deleuze

We are still waiting on the chancellor to make his statement, but word on the street is that the conservatives have decided for re-elections.

12:15: Strache declares his resignation as vice chancellor and head of the FPÖ. Wants the coalition to continue. Lots of talk about how this is a political assassination attempt and only resigns to give the enemies of the coalition no ammo. Says that this is clearly an action of a secret service. Norbert Hofer will take over the party.

still waiting on Kurzalso the second FPÖ person in the video, Johann Gudenus, has stepped backstill waiting on Kurz

yeah, that seems to be true according to Austrian media. Georg Mayer is a EU MP for the FPÖ.

still waiting on Kurzmeanwhile in front of the chancellor office there is an ongoing demonstration that journalists believe could escalate if Kurz doesn't call for new elections

Since in the video Strache talks about giving infrastructure offers away and cutting off STRABAG, an enterprise led by an outspoken neoliberal supporter and donor and open enemy of the FPÖ Hans-Peter Haselsteiner, STRABAG has announced to challenge all public bids it has lost in this legislative period.

Also the social-democrats, in the person of former defense minister, an SPÖ right-wing hardliner, which is in a regional coalition with the FPÖ in the state "Burgenland", has given an interview questioning this regional coalition.

On May 18 2019 21:43 TheDwf wrote:Strache blamed the service secrets for this trap, who was in charge of them when the events happened in 2017? Conservatives had the Interior back then?

He didn't say which secret service he blamed. I think the correct translation of the wording he used was "a secret service attack" (German: "ein geheimdienstlicher Angriff") against his person.It's just crude far-right polemia. They blamed the Israelian mossad for the death of Jörg Haider (driving at an alcohol level of 1.8 surely wasn't the cause of his car accident). But yes, the security services are mostly in the hand of conservative officials, although the social-democrats held the position of defense minister for some time.

Lots of rumors are running rampant. It is said that Kurz asked the FPÖ to continue the coalition, but the interior ministor Herbert Kickl has to go and has to be replaced with a conservative. The FPÖ is said to have rejected that claim.Then it was said that Kurz didn't want to go to the press at all anymore today. But given the heated demonstration in front of the chancellor office his party has told him that this is a no-go.It seems like time is suddenly running against Kurz in the public debate. Journalists, conservatives and demonstrants are becoming increasingly nervous that Kurz has missed his timing to withdraw from the coalition with his head up.

Current information for a press conference: 19:45, so three hours from now.

A new clip with "private" attacks on Kurz and Kern (ex-SPÖ chancellor) has been released on twitter by a new account. twitter.com It seems like this account has more parts of the video, so they are more wildly distributed than thought before? And what else is there to see, since SZ and Spiegel only released about 5 minutes of material from a 7-8 hour dinner. Strange days ahead of us...EDIT: Also funny that for once the Krone newspaper distances itself from the FPÖ (they always say they are independent but their news cycle favours them most of the time) and the commenters on their website (mostly right-wing, anti-immigration and very christian) are riling up against the newspaper. So what will they end up reading? Have they lost their voice?